Excalibur is a sword-themed Warframe. With the power to channel energy into his summoned blade, he is a mobile swordsman with potent methods of execution. Excalibur is one of three starter options for new players.

Acquisition

Component blueprints drop from Ambulas (Hades, Pluto), or bought complete from Teshin for 60,000‍60,000 once players have achieved Typhoon rank in the Conclave.

The drop chances for each component are 38.72%, 38.72%, 22.56% for Neuroptics, Chassis, Systems respectively as it is for most boss-rewarded Warframe components, with an expected 5-6 runs to obtain each component at least once and 36±9 runs to be nearly guaranteed each component at least once.

Warframe Guides

“I am the Lotus. I will guide you, but we must hurry.”

Guides are created by users like you. They aren't as strictly regulated as most pages, so keep an eye out for dated or subjective information.

Have your own build and playstyle? You can contribute too! Instructions are within.

Trivia

It costs less platinum to purchase the Warframe outright than to rush construction of the components and frame.

He is the first of two Warframes with an unpolarized aura slot, Nekros being the second.

Excalibur is similar in design to Hayden Tenno's suit from Digital Extremes' previous game Dark Sector. This is further reinforced with the Proto-Armor Skin, which is a near-exact copy of that very suit.

Excalibur is named after the legendary sword of Arthur; King of the Britons. Many of his alternate helmets feature names based off Arthurian legend.

Prior to Update 14, Excalibur would use his equipped melee weapon when casting his abilities, regardless if it was impractical (Casting Radial Javelin with a Galatine), nonsensical (Slash Dashing with the Kogake) or impossible (Using any of his abilities without a melee weapon equipped). Update 14 changed this by making him generate an ethereal Skana when using his abilities, rather than using his melee weapon.

If there was no melee weapon equipped, then Excalibur would use the active weapon. (i.e. Radial Javelin with a Braton). Humorously, ethereal copies of that weapon would appear upon using Radial Javelin.

According to the Official Tenno Alphabet Cipher, the design on Excalibur's right shoulder is in fact a word that spells out "Hayden Tenno". The same word can be found on top of Excalibur's head.

Excalibur's default helmet was added to the real-time strategy game Airmech as a victory gesture after Warframe beating Airmech in a vote of popularity between the two.

This was originally intended to be Excalibur Prime's default helmet however the reason for this change is unknown.

Excalibur Prime

The Sentients had won. They had turned our weapons, our technology, against us. The more advanced we became, the greater our losses. The war was over unless we found a new way. In our desperation we turned to the Void. The blinding night, the hellspace where our science and reason failed.

We took the twisted few that had returned from that place. We built a frame around them, a conduit of their affliction. Gave them the weapons of the old ways. Gun and blade. A new warrior, a new code was born. These rejects, these Tenno, became our saviors. Warrior-Gods cast in steel and fury striking our enemies in a way they could never comprehend.
Excalibur was the first.

- Orokin 'Warframe' Archives

Excalibur Prime is the epitome of mobility and offense, and features the same abilities as Excalibur, but has unique mod polarities installed allowing for greater customization.

—In-game Description

Excalibur Prime is the primed variant of the Excalibur Warframe featuring more powerful stats: possessing higher armor, as well as an additional and a Aura slot, rather than a slot without a polarity.

Acquisition

This Warframe is no longer available, and will not be available again due to it being exclusive to certain Founder packs. The Excalibur Prime Warframe was only obtainable by upgrading a Warframe account to Founders status of Hunter or greater, which is no longer available. The Warframe came with its own warframe slot and was already augmented with an Orokin Reactor.

The Founders' program closed on the 1st of November, 2013, as announced on the warframe forums. This closure is inclusive of pack upgrades.

Notes

As a Prime Warframe, Excalibur Prime possesses a special passive ability where contact with an Orokin VoidDeath Orb will make them release an energy pulse that grants 250Energy to all nearby allies. This effect can only occur once per Death Orb, and can occur even if the Death Orb has been previously destroyed.

Trivia

Excalibur Prime is the first prime Warframe in game.

It is also the first prime Warframe to come with two different polarities, as opposed to one. This was followed by Ember Prime and Loki Prime.

There is a statue of Excalibur Prime inside the Orokin Derelict vaults, and one of the LuaSpy vaults.

Interestingly, at the start of Update 11.0 Excalibur Prime was given a short-lived full body skin called "Alabaster", which was explained by Digital Extremes as a test skin that was released by mistake. The skin's texture was similar to said Vault statues.

Compared to the later prime Warframes, Excalibur Prime has the least cosmetic difference compared to his standard counterpart, with the only significant additions being the Void Key-shaped emblem on his helmet and golden blades along his forearms.

When he was released, it was widely believed that Excalibur Prime had a slightly faster shield recharge rate compared to the non-prime variant.

While the existence of this feature can neither be confirmed, nor denied, Excalibur Prime currently does not possess this stat change.

Much like how Update 14.0 gave the standard Excalibur an ethereal Skana when using his abilities, Excalibur Prime uses an ethereal Skana Prime with his abilities, which was also added in the same update.

Media

See also

Excalibur Umbra

Excalibur Umbra is the Umbra variant of Excalibur, first released in the Chinese build of WARFRAME. It will be released in the Global Build at a later date.

Excalibur Umbra is not yet available in the Global Build.

Official Information

Digital Extremes has disclosed that Excalibur Umbra is to be the first of the "Umbra" Warframe variants. He is to come with its own unique system of acquisition, as a means to make Excalibur Umbra's release special. During Devstream 72, Rebecca Ford compared revealing information about Excalibur Umbra prior to his release to revealing information about The Second Dream, potentially spoiling their intended result.

Like the Prime Warframes before him, Excalibur Umbra will be an entirely separate Warframe, and is presumed to have its own stats and polarities separate from either Excalibur or Excalibur Prime. Excalibur Umbra will also be a "global upgrade" to Excalibur, as opposed to being limited for a period of time.

Trivia

Excalibur Umbra will be the first Umbra variant of a warframe to be released in WARFRAME.

In the Chinese Build, Excalibur Umbra originated as part of their Founder's pack exclusive, named as Excalibur Umbra Prime. The pack also included the Nikana Prime and the Spira Prime (both of which were introduced in the Global Build with Saryn Prime instead), as well as the Gauvan Prime Sekhara, a shoulder accessory obtainable only through that Founder pack.

Slash Dash targets enemies in a cone within the direction of aim. Excalibur will then lock on to the targeted enemies and zig-zag between them while slashing them. Airborne enemies, such as Hellions and Ospreys, can also be targeted.

If there are no enemies within its targeting area, Slash Dash will make Excalibur dash forward in the direction of aim, allowing it to be used as a mobility aid when reaching high places.

Pressing the Melee Attack button will cause Excalibur to instantly equip his current melee weapon after finishing Slash Dash.

When Exalted Blade is active, each attack from Slash Dash will release an energy wave. Since Exalted Blade is classified as a longsword, Slash Dash will also have increased base damage from Excalibur's passive.

When Exalted Blade is active and Chromatic Blade is equipped, Slash Dash seems to also gain the benefits of the augment (i.e. the status chance increase and the pure elemental nature). If Excalibur has 180% Ability Strength when activating Exalted Blade, all following Slash Dash casts seem to have 100% status chance.

Radial Blind will not affect enemies behind obstacles in the environment unless Excalibur has line of sight, or unless the enemy is aware of Excalibur within a short period of time (e.g., an enemy that spots Excalibur and runs out of view is still susceptible to Radial Blind if the ability is used within a small time frame).

Blind melee units will run to the source of audible gunfire and/or footsteps. Certain melee units, such as Guardsmen and Ancients, may attack Excalibur's last known location.

Blind ranged units will stand still or run for cover, and may occasionally throw a grenade towards Excalibur after the initial stun. Certain ranged units, such as Fusion MOAs, may also fire upon Excalibur's last known location. In most cases, ranged units will not use close-range crowd control abilities or melee.

Security cameras will deactivate their laser barriers for the duration.

Radial Blind affects individual bosses differently:

Some bosses are rendered helpless, and will not perform any actions unless attacked while blinded:

Sprag and Ven'kra Tel do not attack the player unless attack first while blinded.

Lieutenant Lech Kril will not use his Ice Wave attack at all while blinded. (He cannot see the players, and thus cannot target them.) During the first stage of the boss fight, this (briefly) prevents progression until the blinding effect wears off.

The Jackal will not attack the player unless attacked, but it will turn in place to attempt to keep the player in its frontal cone of vision. (More testing is needed to determine if this is AI behavior unique to bosses, or if it is a product of noise generated by the player while running.)

Alad V will not do damage to you while blinded, but be aware that he can also blind you. Zanuka however, his companion-boss, can deal damage while blinded, via mini-rockets. It cannot fire them while blinded, but if they are fired prior to blinding it, they can still track you.

Other bosses will still perform some actions, but will not attack:

The Sergeant will still turn invisible on occasion, but will otherwise be entirely helpless.

Lynx will not attack the player while blinded, but be aware that any Lynx Turrets which were not hit by Radial Blind will still be able to attack, and the Lynx itself will not be vulnerable to damage unless all the Lynx Ospreys are defeated.

Councilor Vay Hek will still alternate between invincible and not while blinded, and he will dodge to the side when hit, even while blinded, but he will not retaliate at all. The Orbital Strike Drones he deploys can still attack you if they are not blinded.

Blinded enemies have smoke diffusing from their eyes or similar body part for the ability's duration.

Can be used while running, attacking, blocking, jumping, sliding, forward flipping, wall running or clinging to a wall.

Has a cast time of 1 second and a reuse delay of 5 seconds, affected by Natural Talent.

If Excalibur managed to use an item (such as a Life Support in Survival) while casting the ability, Radial Blind will be cast twice: First, in a slowed animation and the second as the actual ability. Both animations still counts as a single Radial Blind.

While javelins do notPunch Through objects or enemies, their striking position is optimized to ensure a successful hit on their targets when they spawn. This allows the javelins to bypass obstacles in the environment including walls, cover, and Grineer Shield Lancer shields.

Radial Javelin will not target enemies behind obstacles in the environment unless Excalibur has line of sight, or unless the enemy is aware of Excalibur within a short period of time (e.g., an enemy that spots Excalibur and runs out of view can still be targeted by Radial Javelin if the ability is used within a small time frame).

Prior to Update 15, a Mag casting Magnetize on an enemy could provide an extremely potent combo with this ability if Excalibur then activates this skill while standing next to the target. All javelins would then be immediately attracted into the enemy, dealing massive damage.

Maximization is a form of specialization: mods may be blended to result in values that vary between the top-end limits listed here. Click any maximized link to learn how to build it.

Excalibur is the first of three initial Warframes that can be chosen in the game, along with Mag and Volt.

Wielding a mix of offensive, defensive and supportive abilities, Excalibur is a versatile frame that can fulfill a variety of roles: With ability like Slash Dash, Excalibur possesses a fair amount of mobility, allowing him hurdle certain map sections that only a few Warframes are capable of. Radial Blind is a supportive skill that stuns a wide group of enemies around Excalibur allowing him and/or his teammates ample time to finish them off. Slash Dash and Radial Javelin are his offensive skills and they provide Excalibur a decent level of damage that synergizes well with the other frames, such as Mag.

Skills

Slash Dash

This ability can be used in the air or while jumping.

Radial Blind

This ability can disable large groups of enemies surrounding Excalibur.

This ability can be used on some bosses to prevent them from using their abilities.

Radial Javelin

This can be further increased using Banshee's Sonar. Able to defeat low level bosses with a single cast.

Exalted Blade

This ability switches to a unique melee weapon, which shoots waves of energy with each slash.

This ability grants auto-parry by blocking attacks from the front.

This ability gains the bonuses granted by the current melee weapon's mods.

First Ability: Slash Dash: Slash Dash will now target enemies within a conal distance from Excalibur, targeting all enemies within the range of cast. Enemies hit by Slash Dash will count towards the player’s melee combo counter.

Third Ability: Super Jump has been removed from Excalibur’s Abilities.

Third Ability: Radial Javelin is now Excalibur’s third Ability and costs 75 Energy to activate.

Super Jump: Super Jump will now add invisibility to Excalibur while in air. Additionally, Super Jump will cause a small radial stun to all enemies around Excalibur when performed, similar to the way Ash’s Smoke Screen works.

Radial Blind: No longer able to affect enemies in rooms separated by walls. To encourage and facilitate different gameplay styles (like stealth), enemies aware of Excalibur within a few seconds, or enemies that Excalibur can see, will also be affected.

Radial Javelin: All enemies within radius of this ability will now be hit with a javelin. Instead of having this ability radiate out from Excalibur, javelins will now spawn directly around opponents. Javelins will optimize to find a point on each enemy that is safe to be hit, bypassing enemies that may be holding shields or otherwise in cover. There is also no longer a target maximum for this ultimate, meaning anyone in the radius will be an eligible target. Additionally, if the javelin does not kill the enemy, each target that survives will be put into stun for a brief period of time.